Bloody Roar Wikia:Guidelines
The following is Guidelines for how to edit or add a page keeping the style of this wiki. The guidelines concern the articles and mainspace of this wikia, user pages are exempt from those rules. __TOC__ Things to Remember About Wikis and Edit Summaries These are suggestions and things you should take care to remember about EVERY wiki ever. *'Have fun with it'. Don't take things too personally, we're all here to work with each other. As serious as I may come off in this and other writings, it's all fun for the most part, end of the day. Disagreements are a natural part of communication, and being able to resolve conflicts in a civil manner goes a long way. *'A wiki's guidelines should ideally be something to learn from, not live by. '''If the rules are hampering your ability to edit and/or enjoy the wiki experience, let someone know. We're all here to grow and improve as editors. *'These''' guidelines can be considered an FAQ of sorts. Guidelines are usually just that: a list of things that the wiki's higher-ups would like you to try and remember while editing. There are some guidelines that will be enforced more strictly than others, of course, but administrators and the community in general will usually be accommodating when it comes to new editors, especially those who make relatively simple and genuine mistakes. *'Get in the habit of lurking.' The next best way to learn most anything, especially how a wiki works policy-wise or style-wise, is often just to sit back and watch. It especially helps if you're eager to learn how things work and/or afraid of walking into a minefield by violating policies on your first day on the "job". If you have questions, ask them. Nothing wrong with biting that bullet occasionally, so long as you make an effort to commit what you learn to some sort of memory. Edit summaries are your friends. Ideally, an edit that you're confused about will have some sort of explanation in the edit summary, which can be viewed in Wiki Activity/Recent Changes, the Edit History section of a page, etc. *'Any content added is subject to editing, re-writing, removal, dismantling, etc.' In other words, when you make an edit, you acknowledge that whatever changes you make are themselves subject to changes within the appropriate boundaries. You also acknowledge that said content does not violate any applicable copyrights as well. *'Notability is everything, but not everything is notable.' Try to keep in mind what falls within a given wiki's scope, and edit accordingly. *'Always assume good faith', except for when there isn't any. We're all human, and I can understand being short of patience with someone; it's a sin we're all guilty of. That said, by assuming good faith whenever possible, you can avoid unnecessary edit wars, flame wars, and all that nonsense. This especially applies to vandalism and dealing with vandal edits, among other things discussed within that section. *'Never ignite with an edit or flame war what you can solve with a talk page. '''If you believe something was done (i.e. content removed, changed around) '''in error', be sure to discuss that with the user(s) in question. Do not flame/spam/harass/etc., as the inevitable result is a block, and it makes the situation somewhat harder to resolve. Reading edit summaries can also aid in conflict resolution. General Tips Originality *'Get in the habit of paraphrasing. '''When writing articles, try not to lift text from other sites (read "copypaste") unless absolutely necessary, e.g. quoting. This ''especially applies to borrowing from Wikipedia or any other wiki. The main reason for this is because wikis are not meant to be primary sources. It is recommended that, if you must copy anything from another wiki, let it be the sources they link, from which you can write your own article from scratch. *'Avoid the use of foreign code'. For example, the tags that are used to format the text; this is generally considered unnecessary. To avoid this, simply insert the text in the default mode. Scope and Perspective *'Remember to keep articles as objective as possible.' The general purpose of a wiki is to be (relatively) informal and informative, and getting too personal with article writing gets in the way of that. The userpages are a proper place for personal thoughts and the like. Constant insertion of opinions can be considered vandalism. *'Accept objective facts even the negative ones.' You can't remove or ignore an information only because you think it make look the Bloody Roar franchise bad. The entire series has its part of flaws. For example, it's the job of the game critics to put a statement as objective as possible, about a game and, as facts, review by professional critics are welcomed, to a certain extent, in this wiki (in particular in the Reception sections). It's the same thing for the sale numbers or the comparisons with more popular fighting games. *'Do not create articles about characters/attacks/etc. unless they are substantially related in some way to the Bloody Roar series.' Non-Bloody Roar characters that appear in crossovers (like DreamMix TV World Fighters) do not need articles. Simply link a redirect to the character's article on the appropriate wiki. Do not create that redirect here. Too Little and Too Much... *'Do not begin a new article and leave it wanting in terms of even basic information. '''Try to avoid creating effortless stub articles. If you create a new stub, try to include as much information as possible in that first edit. *'Linking within an article is best kept to a minimum of one link per subject per article.' That is, if you link to Yugo's page within an article, only do so '''once', because there's not much point in having several links to another page on the same article. Links in templates are not usually counted towards this; in addition, certain exceptions may be made for longer articles. As far as quotes go, multiple links may be allowed in order to give character-specific quotes some context. *'An article should have as many images as possible without being flooded with them.' There should be one to three images for each instance of a subject in a game, on average; e.g. a move that appears in three games should have at least three images from said games, particularly if there are changes between its appearances. Per the , they should also be of decent quality. Avoiding Text Walls and Other Tips for Concise Writing *'Try to avoid flowery writing, redundancy and padding.' Articles must be written as concisely and descriptively as possible, without it being overdone or inflated. *'Get to the point and stay there.' If you can find a way to repeat a statement made with fewer words, more often than not you should do so. This is not meant to encourage compression and oversimplification of information within articles; rather, we want to promote a concise style of writing that is informal and informative, without an excess of either. *'Do not abuse the adjective.' It is a fragile creature, and does not take to being shoved into a sentence that is effectively a list of adjectives. *'Notability is everything, but not everything is notable.' In this case, it means sticking to the subject and covering the important stuff first and foremost. In addition, there is often no need to repeat a statement several times within the same article. Most readers will probably balk at having something drilled into their heads. *'Consider the average reader when writing articles.' Don't project your personal reading references into your writing; and try not to take them for granted (for lack of a better phrase), whether it be assuming they are geniuses or first-timers. *'Padding and fluff are not always intentional, but are unwanted nonetheless.' Merely inflating an article with information to make it seem long and detailed is an often relatively harmless, yet strongly discouraged practice that can become time-consuming. As such, be sure to double-check an article to make sure what you plan to add isn't already in there. Padding/adding contents for the sake of intentionally inflating an edit count is similarly frowned upon, if not more so. Just don't do it. *'Try to develop time-and-work-saving habits. '''Writing issues and repeated edits to a page are understandable in some cases; newer users will need some practice adding information in as few edits as possible, and some users tend to be more long-winded in their writing than others. General Article Standards Citations *'Not every single piece of information has to have a source.' Specifically, if you can verify a certain piece of information (i.e. endings, character appearance, etc.) by ''just playing the relevant game, then a filled-out citation is probably unnecessary, and just a statement implying or saying as much will do, if anything is deemed necessary at all *'Source and/or verify whatever information you can, especially if that information deals with more intricate details.' This applies particularly to translation info, developer comments, game reviews, etc. References should be placed at the bottom of the page or as a link near of the information concerned. Categories *'It's expected that articles, files, etc. be placed in the appropriate categories.' However, there are some categories that are added automatically when templates are placed on a page. Visit the category pages to discover which category covers which articles, and how to add articles to those sections. The use of templates to add categories is discussed below. Trivia *'Try to keep what is added as within the realm of Bloody Roar as possible. '''While there are plenty of trivia facts to be found about a given character or move, the purpose of the trivia section is to house all facts that are '''notable' about a given subject, but cannot be reasonably placed anywhere else in the article. *'An article's trivia section should ideally be as small as possible. '''If you find a factoid in trivia that can be integrated into the article, then do so. Once again, notability is everything, but not everything is notable. What Not to Do Vandalism Vandalism basically includes most forms of non-constructive editing, including (but not limited to) removal of a large amount of content from pages for no given reason, spamming up pages, and simply inserting nonsense into pages. Keep in mind that: *Not all trolling is vandalism, but vandalism is often a common form of "trolling" via wikis. *That said, vandalism is also a waste of everyone's time, especially the vandal's. *It's also undo-able in at least 10 seconds, and '''will' more than likely result in a block. Anti-Vandalism In the event an admin isn't present to undo vandalism (on this or other wikis), you can often combat it yourself, usually very easily. That said, keep these important pointers in mind: *'Always view the page history first.' This way you don't make the mistake of marking a legit-but-vandalized article for deletion. *In some cases, there will simply be at least an extra sentence or two added, or a few words changed, and you can manually edit those out. *For single-edit cases, there is an undo button next to the last edit made in the history section, though it can be used for any edit as long as no other edits were made over it; this can also be accessed via Wiki Activity or Recent Changes. Pressing Undo will bring up the editing screen, which will detail the changes being undone and generate an edit summary, always along the lines of "Undid revision #xxxxxx by Username (talk)", that can be changed if so desired. After making any additional changes needed, simply press Submit to finish undoing the edit. *For multi-edit cases: **Admins with rollback can undo the last consecutive string of edits made by a user via the rollback option, found in the same area as the undo button. **All users can also access the History section and click the link to the last non-vandal edit made on the page. Hitting 'Edit' while on that older revision's page and then 'Submit' should restore the page to that revision. Anti-Vandalism Do-Nots When dealing with vandalism, there are many wrong ways to approach a situation. *'Avoid antagonizing vandals whenever possible', whether via edit summaries or talk pages. Remember that vandalism is never serious enough to warrant a loss of temper, given how easily undo-able it often is. Plus, "an eye for an eye" logic tends to work horribly in the online realm, and will most certainly backfire here. Harassment, flaming, vandalism, etc. is a block-able offense no matter who it is directed towards. If you must leave them a message warning them and such, do so in as calm a manner as possible. *'Try to remain as 'neutral' as possible when trying to figure out whether an edit constitutes vandalism. '''In addition to the earlier tip on assuming good faith, some edits, while generally undesired, are not inherently malicious and can be fixed rather easily. Most of the time, it won't be hard to spot vandal edits. Harassment We're not asking that you be all sunshine and rainbows, unless that's your prerogative. In any case at the least, '''try to keep interactions with other users as civil as possible.' *'If you have any personal problems with someone, and it's in danger of escalating into something disruptive, it's the admins' job to stop it' before it gets that far, which will include blocking if needed. The least we ask of you is that, if you can't resolve said personal issues, then have the sense to keep it off-site. *'This is especially recommended in the event you hold a grudge against an admin', or vice versa. Conflict management is an important skill for daily interaction, as explained previously, and misuses of power (or attempts at such) are frowned upon heavily. *'Users should not get it in their heads that they can strong-arm other users or admins into doing whatever they please.' Conversely, admins themselves are often considered to be held to a higher standard by virtue of their status, and similarly should not misuse whatever 'authority' they have. Advertising, Wares, Etc. *'Will be remove any links advertising unrelated external sites or products, '''or else containing content that is unsavory, illegal, malicious, or anything similar within the mainspace ''will be removed. Do not create accounts solely for the purpose of spreading such links, as this is frowned upon by Wikia in general and will result in a block at least 90% of the time. In the relatively unlikely event a user is warned about this behavior, repeat offenses will definitely result in a block. *As far as users advertising their own sites or such on their pages (e.g. tumblr, deviantart, YouTube, etc.), such linking is allowed; the Bloody Roar Wikia has userpages and forum for more personal content, though it is also important that said space not be used for advertising such sites, as it is detailed above. Unsourced Info/Opinions *'The articles on this wiki are intended to be as objective as possible.' There are places on the Internet where people can theorize, speculate, give opinions on their favorite/most hated characters, etc. The mainspace of this wiki is not one of those places. *'Keep any personal opinions of characters, games, etc. on userpages and blogs.' The same goes for fan-made content as well; for unconfirmed non-speculative information, refer to the citations section above. However, in addition to userpages and blogs, posting it in the relevant Talk pages, Forum, and other such areas is acceptable (e.g. for purposes of discussing legitimacy). *'Posting such things will not earn a block on its own.' If done repeatedly enough and/or on a large enough scale, then administrative action will be taken. Particularly unwanted opinions (i.e. ones that involve breaking CAPS LOCK and SHIFT keys and being a general pest, among other things) will be likened to vandalism and also treated apropos. *'From the user's experience, speculation is ''generally frowned upon on a wiki.' That said, s''ome speculation is permitted in instances where there is a certain lack of information to go on, e.g. as is often the case with the 'mysterious character' archetype. Again, the Talk pages may be a good place to discuss such things, among others. Images and Videos *Disregard for some specific guidelines will result in a few warnings, and then a block. Disregard for the rest will likely result in me being possibly vaguely annoyed with you for five seconds before I forget about it. *'Submission of pornographic content or any other content of a similarly questionable nature is prohibited', and will result in a long and possibly permanent block. Swearing *'Just keep it out of the articles' (where it's usually unnecessary), and try not to overdo it elsewhere. Blocks and Dealing With Them *If you've been blocked, and you're not guilty of any of the major infractions detailed so far, or you feel that you've genuinely learned from your mistake and would like some leniency, you can try contacting an admin (usually off-site, if possible) about shortening or removing the block. *Under no circumstances, however, should you attempt to circumvent said block (typically done via alternate accounts). More often than not this results in an additional (if not LONGER) block, and significantly decreases your chances of an admin "humoring" you. Credit Most of this rules are taken from Lord Grammaticus' Street Fighter Manual of Style Category:General Wiki